Oct. 24 marks the anniversary of the dedication of Penn State's Nittany Lion shrine, a gift from the class of 1940. The statue of a mountain lion at University Park was created by sculptor Heinz Warneke in 1942 from a 13-ton block of Indiana limestone. In 1968, Warneke approved 10 one-quarter-scale “cubs” to be made and prominently placed at Commonwealth Campuses. Eventually, every campus received its own version of the statue, and some have since replaced theirs with a larger model. 

Click through the gallery below for a photo history of the Nittany Lion shrine.